Amazon Business was cited for outstanding customer service by less than a quarter of its customers in a recent survey, but nonetheless many of its customers plan to increase their spending on the online business-to-business marketplace.
Those are among the results of a study done earlier this year of 400 U.S. businesses who had purchased any type of business supplies over the prior 12 months from Amazon Business, the B2B arm of Amazon.com Inc. The study, “Piranha Business: Investigating the Appeal of Amazon Business,” was produced by research firm Martin Wilde Associates and publisher Office Products International.
The study found that only 23% of respondents said they believe that Amazon Business’s customer and after-sales service was better than that of other online sellers. Still, 49% of respondents said they plan to increase their spending on Amazon Business, while only 13% said they plan to spend less.
The study further indicated that many Amazon Business customers are satisfied with the marketplace’s self-service features. A wide majority of respondents—75%—said it’s not important for them to have a visit from a supplier’s representative.
Among other findings, the study found that 36% of respondents said they prefer to buy from a third-party supplier on Amazon Business, rather than directly from Amazon Business as the seller of record, while 13% prefer to buy only from Amazon Business.
B2BecNews reported in June that earlier findings of the study showed 24% of buyers on Amazon Business the past year had not previously purchased business supplies from Amazon.
Amazon Business is No. 104 in the B2B E-Commerce 300.
Sign up for a free subscription to B2BecNews, a twice-weekly newsletter that covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B e-commerce industry. B2BecNews is published by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes DigitalCommerce360.com, Internet Retailer and Internet Health Management. Follow B2BecNews editor Paul Demery on Twitter @pdemery.
Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when new B2BecNews content is published.